Posts Tagged ‘Timur Bekmambetov’

In what is being likened to aliens meets 28 Days Later, The Darkest Hour, is taking shape according to Deadline. It is a thriller about a group of kids in Russia struggling to survive after an alien invasion. Summit, New Regency and Fox have got behind it and the script has been knocking around since 2007. Timur Bekmambetov is producing with Tom Jacobson.

Chris Gorak is to direct it. According to Collider he directed 2006’s Right at Your Door. The cool news is that he was art director on Minority Report, Fight Club, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Tombstone. All of them are great movies and have a great look so this has the potential to be a cool looking film.

I posted the trailer for the book yesterday and, according to Heat Vision, this caught the interest of Timur and Tim.

The book was released today by Grand Central Publishing.

Burton and Bekmambetov will produce the adaptation with Jim Lemley.

Grahame-Smith, who combined zombies and Jane Austen in the best-selling novel “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” will write the screenplay. The Zombies book is set up at Lionsgate with Natalie Portman producing and attached to direct.

If it does get as far as a film who should star in it and would you want Timur or Tim to direct or someone else?

The facts included are: for over 250 years, between 1607 and 1865, vampires thrived in the shadows of America. Few humans believed in them; Abraham Lincoln was the most gifted vampire hunter of his day, and kept a secret journal about his war against them; and rumors of the journal’s existence have long been a favorite topic among historians and Lincoln biographers. Most dismiss it as myth. Through the extraordinary discovery of Abraham Lincoln’s previously unknown and long lost journals, Seth Grahame-Smith brings to life the Great Emancipator’s untold history- his lifelong pursuit of the immortal undead. With unparalleled daring, Seth re-writes Abraham Lincoln’s biography to include this significant and gory piece of US history. “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” features all the detail, colour, and readability of Team of Rivals – Barack Obama’s favourite book and the number one bestselling Lincoln biography – with only some of the historical accuracy (and thrilling new scenes of vampire combat). From Lincoln’s frontier childhood to his assassination, this richly re-imagined history gives new meaning to the moments of an already incredible life.Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter at Amazon.co.ukAbraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter at Amazon.com

Alexandr Rybak. It’s actually rather good I think, particularly with all the action going on around him.

Directed by Alexandr Voitinsky and produced by Timur Bekmambetov, Black Lightning tells the story of a Moscow University student who becomes the owner of a seemingly ordinary car. However the Volga car can actually fly, and a bit more to boot. Unexpectedly he becomes the city’s defender and somehow manages to find something akin to his nemesis to battle.

This is a music video for a song called I Don’t Believe in Miracles by Alexandr Rybak from the soundtrack of the film. It also happens to show lots of new footage.

Directed by Dmitriy Kiselev and Alexandr Voitinsk and produced by Bekmambetov. It looks like Russian’s answer to all the comic book superheroics we have been seeing lately.

This is a story of Moscow University’s student who becomes the owner of ordinary from the first sight, been-used, but… able to fly “Volga” car. With this car he will be able to not only avoid Moscow traffic jams, but unexpectedly for himself turn to city’s defender, mysterious fighter against Evil.
Due out in Russia on 31st December 2009 and I think it looks very cool indeed.

A new era in animated storytelling begins on 9.9.09. Visionary filmmakers Tim Burton (The Corpse Bride, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory) and Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Nightwatch) join forces to produce wunderkind director Shane Acker’s distinctively original and thrilling tale.
9 stars Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Martin Landau, Christopher Plummer and Crispin Glover and features the music of Danny Elfman. When 9 (The Lord of the Ring’s Elijah Wood) first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they’ll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on
them.

Recently Timur Bekmambetov was talking about making Wanted 2 and how he would like Angelina Jolie to return. Spoilers ahead.

For those of you who know, Jolie’s character bends a bullet at the end of the film that takes down all the bad guys including herself. The film, and the Mark Millar comic it was based on, was full of mad concepts and included a place where the characters where healed in super quick time. However, there was no mention of characters being brought back from the dead.The comic did feature lots of parallel dimensions though so it could possibly bring back characters that way, but that still doesn’t fit into the film version.

However, they could probably fit something into the universe they set up to do this and if that was the case could also mean a possible return for the other characters who died in the first one.

Now MTV have an interview with Jolie that seems to indicate in no uncertain terms that her character isn’t likely to return for a sequel, but that could just be movie talk while deals and money is being discussed.

Back in November 2008, MTV spoke to Jolie and she discussed her final scene in the film.

“In the original, she doesn’t kill herself,” said Jolie. “I actually changed the ending. I said, ‘If she was to find out she had killed people unjustly and was a part of something that wasn’t fair, then she should take her own life.’”

That means it was Jolie who wanted the character to die due to what she had done.

The film based on Mark Millar’s cool comic, Wanted, has spawned a sequel and looks as if there will be some surprises in it. Last I heard it was going to follow Wesley (James Mcavoy) travelling around the World hunting down more of the Assassin’s Guild that recruited him. If you haven’t seen the first one, beware spoilers ahead.

Evan Spiliotopoulos had been hired to write a script based off of a story by Wanted writer Chris Morgan

“In July we will start preparation for the film. I think in the late autumn or winter shooting will be performed” Bekmambetov said to Russia IC. “The shooting will take place in America, India and Russia”

The film director and producer promised that in the sequel he would bring back to life Angelina Jolie’s character, who perished at the end of the first movie. In addition to that, new characters will be introduced in the sequel.

“As for the character played by Kostya Khabenskiy (the bloke who ran the healing spa place), we’ll think about it. We might possibly resurrect him as well” the film director said.

Here is a great poster for Shane Acker’s 9, the animated movie featuring the voices of Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, Christopher Plummer, and Martin Landau.

9 takes place in a world parallel to our own, in which our very humanity is threatened. A group of rag dolls living a post-apocalyptic existence find one of their own, 9, who may be the key to their survival.

The film is also rated PG-13 which means it will be able to match the darkness set up for this post-apocalyptic tale.

Finally a new teaser for Timur Belmanbetov’s Black Lightning starring Georgy Dobrinin, courtesy of Quiet Earth.“Everyone lives for himself, the rain of apathy holds us down. Someone needs to step up first. Black Lightning will rise to the skies above your city to make the world a better place.”

Fox 2000 is acquiring screen rights to Patricia Cornwell’s bestselling book series on medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta, to develop as a vehicle for Angelina Jolie.

There are 16 Scarpetta novels, meaning a franchise is hoped for, but this film won’t be tied to a specific Cornwell mystery title. Much the way that Jason Bourne morphed into an action hero in plots not rigidly locked into the Robert Ludlum book series, the opera-loving coroner Scarpetta will be the lead in a suspense thriller in the vein of “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Seven.”

According to Variety the deal is a mega-marriage, with Jolie one of the most bankable female movie stars, and Cornwell one of the biggest selling female authors in the world. Cornwell, whose latest installment “Scarpetta” was published last December by Putnam, last year made a deal with Lifetime Television to adapt two non-Scarpetta novels, “At Risk” and “The Front.”

Once Jolie sparked to the series, months of negotiations followed between ICM and Fox 2000’s Elizabeth Gabler and Carla Hacken, because Cornwell was so protective of her literary property. The deal finally came together after Jolie and Kosinski met with the author and found common ground on the creative direction of the feature adaptation.

Jolie is starring in the Phillip Noyce-directed “Salt” for Columbia Pictures. She will reprise the voice for her Tigress character in “Kung Fu Panda” sequel and she awaits a script for a “Wanted” sequel that would potentially re-team her with director Timur Bekmambetov and James McAvoy at Universal. It will be interesting to see how they bring back her character in that sequel.

I’ve never read any Patricia Cornwell. If you have would they make a good film? Could it work as a new franchise?